Next Gen 2011: Hollywood's Fastest-Rising Stars

Rowinski, 33, grew up in a little town (Plaistow, N.H.) and went to a tiny liberal arts college (Amherst) -- but all things small ended there when she took a big chance and moved on a whim to Los Angeles in 2000. She caught a break when a friend of a friend sent her resume to Endeavor, where she was soon pushing a mail cart. She became an agent in 2004 and left the company, now WME, in 2010 to head up the feature film division of Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage's Fake Empire Productions. The company is in postproduction on its first feature, Fun Size, and has 12 projects in development. "In the first year of our deal [at Paramount], to have something that is actually going, was really exciting. And very lucky -- let's not kid ourselves," she says. In her short tenure, Rowinski has brought to the company projects based on young adult novels The Luxe and Au Revoir, Crazy European Chick and the short-story anthology Let It Snow. She says she's more than pleased with her decision to leave her small-town East Coast life behind: "I think part of moving out here was just seeing if I could figure it out."

PHOTOS: THR's Next Gen Class of 2011